March, 2012
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Cloud Gear, Cloud To Go, Rain Dances
Who is the biggest victim of IT consumerization?
Research in Motion has been no stranger to the total domination of Android and iPhone – in fact it lost a remarkable part of it’s market share to the new consumer-friendly phones and it just has not been able to keep up with the gadgets. Blackberry used to dominate the business world and is the [...]
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This Week in Mobility
Mobility isn’t just one of the most hyped parts of the technology world when it comes to press coverage, the move to smartphones has become more than significant with smartphones now accounting for the majority of phone purchases according to Nielsen. So we thought this would be a great time to write up a weekly [...]
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Dell as an SMB VAR: From the horses mouth
Two weeks ago I wrote about the partner reaction to Dell’s planned acquisition of SonicWall. Many of the partners are not happy, to say the least. Arlin Sorensen from HTG noted a very personal appeal from the SonicWall folks claiming it will be business as usual. Today I had a chance to follow up on [...]
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FTC’s irrelevant report on Privacy and why it matters
Today FTC released it’s final report on online privacy and recommended that privacy should be designed as a part of the product, management of what is private and public is up to the consumer and that there needs to be more transparency regarding what is collected and who is collecting it. To sum it up [...]
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ISPs step up security management
Top four ISPs in USA, representing over 80% of consumer broadband, are announcing the adoption of new security precautions as advised by the FCC’s CSRIC. CSRIC, for those of you that want to impress your geeky friends, is Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council. Among the major commitments will be implementation of DNSSEC, botnet detection, [...]
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Should your boss access your Facebook?
Facebook has become a huge battleground of employee privacy as the popularity of Facebook grows along with the unemployment rate and employers ability to get the prospective hires to sign off on anything to get a job. While the activity is highly illegal, what are businesses doing to manage social media backfire might not surprise [...]
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What can we conclude from the HP reorganization?
It’s one thing for us as solution providers to debate about the post-PC era, but it’s quite another to see major PC manufacturers resign to the end of growth in sales of PCs and printers. HP, one of the most respected PC manufacturers with an often praised channel program, announced that it is combining it’s [...]
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More threats to the MDM dream, more opportunities
The hype over the opportunity to manage mobile devices is getting louder but many of the service providers we’ve spoken to are not convinced the “device” itself is the management opportunity. Today two new developments are further confirming that skepticism with the carriers and phone vendors announcing plans to manage devices for free by default. [...]
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Changing up Looks Cloudy
Over the next month or so you’ll be seeing some changes at Looks Cloudy, everything from who is writing the blogs to the ways you can interact with it. My hope is to introduce more people to the conversation and discuss how the daily events and new industry developments impact the world of the IT [...]
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Is PayPal Here Another Case for Mobile Device Management
Yesterday PayPal launched Paypal Here, dubbed “The Future of Commerce for Small Business”, over a year after Square launched arguably prettier device that has enjoyed great commercial success. Both devices come with free iPhone app that turns your phone into a credit card terminal – just swipe the card and you’re done. So far the [...]
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Office 365 Discounts Another Disappointment for VARs
Yesterday, Microsoft announced a 20% reduction in the cost of Office 365 package, as reported by SMB Nation’s Regina Ciardiello. This discount comes on top of cost cuts at Microsoft Azure last week. Seemingly these cost cuts are making the backoffice tools more affordable and making partners more active in sales of these solutions. In [...]
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Dell buys SonicWall: Partners Not Thrilled
Dell, through it’s numerous missteps in the SMB and MSP space, has earned a pretty ugly reputation with IT Solution Providers. Yesterday Dell announced the purchase of SonicWall and instantly angered partners who have working with one of the most beloved channel companies. It prompted me to ask, What has Dell done to deserve such [...]
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The Mobile Cloud: Where Do Solution Providers Fit In?
“Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.” That Jack Welch quote speaks directly to the challenges many channel businesses have experienced over the past few years with the rise of managed services, the cloud and mobility. Each was (and continues to [...]
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The Great iPad Debate
Last week we discussed the launch of the new iPad in the context of an opportunity for the MSPs. It has since become an interesting debate with our readers regarding the eventual outcome of who will win and who will lose because nobody wants to be on the same side of the equation as OS/2, [...]
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Microsoft vs. OnLive: Compliance, Licensing & Family Drama
It seems that these days Microsoft cannot escape the iPad shadow, even when it brings popularity to its own products. Case and point: Microsoft is alleging OnLive iPad Windows / Office application is in violation of Microsoft licensing terms and is currently working towards a resolution. OnLive, which provides Windows 7 desktop, Office and storage [...]
